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Speaking through a Romanian interpreter, he answered: “Next to a skip (in Harriet Street). I did not even open the bag. I saw two people arguing outside a house, I realised what I had done and that I should not have done this thing.

“I thought ‘just put the bag down, maybe someone would come and take it from there (where he placed the stolen handbag)’.”

Miss Pitman asked: “At any time that you were in Harriet Street did you see the woman we now know to be the victim?”

The sex attack is alleged to have taken place in Harriet Street (Image: Martin Naylor)

Nastase answered: “I did not see her.”

Miss Pitman said: “Did you see anyone at all walk down Harriet Street at that time?”

He answered: “No.”

She asked: “At any point did you go into the alleyway with the victim?”

Nastase answered: “The alleyway where she was raped? No, I left the handbag (by the skip) and that was all.”

Earlier this week the then 39-year-old alleged victim told the jury how she was dragged into an alleyway and brutally raped.